World
Bomb survivors use Nobel Peace Prize win to share their anti-nuke message with younger generations
TOKYO (AP) — The recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are facing down the shrinking time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.
Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.
“We must seriously think about the succession of our messages. We must thoroughly hand over from our generation to the future generations,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, senior member of the Hiroshima branch of Hidankyo, told reporters Friday night.
“With the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize, we now have a responsibility to get our messages handed down not only in Japan but also across the world.”
The honor rewards members’ grassroots efforts to keep telling their stories — even though that involved recollecting horrendous ordeals during and after the bombings, and facing discrimination and worries about their health from the lasting radiation impact — for the sole purpose of never again let that happen.
Shigemitsu Tanaka, the chairman of Nagasaki Atomic bomb Survivors Council, cries during a press conference, in Nagasaki, western Japan, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize.(Kyodo News via AP)
Now, with their average age at 85.6, the hibakusha are increasingly frustrated that their fear of a growing nuclear threat and push to eliminate nuclear weapons are not fully understood by younger generations.
The number of prefectural hibakusha groups decreased from 47 to 36. And the Japanese government, under the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection, has refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon.
But there is hope, and a youth movement seems to be starting, the Nobel committee noted.
Three high school students accompanied Mimaki at the city hall, stood by him as the prize winner was announced, and promised to keep their activism alive.
“I had goose bumps when I heard the announcement,” said a beaming Wakana Tsukuda. “I have felt discouraged by negative views about nuclear disarmament, but the Nobel Peace Prize made me renew my commitment to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons.”
Another high school student, Natsuki Kai, said, “I will keep up my effort so we can believe that nuclear disarmament is not a dream but a reality.”
In Nagasaki, another group of students celebrated Hidankyo’s win. Yuka Ohara, 17, thanked the survivors’ yearslong effort despite the difficulty. Ohara said she heard her grandparents, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, repeatedly tell her the importance of peace in daily life. “I want to learn more as I continue my activism.”
People visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)
In April, a group of people set up a network, Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, connecting younger generations around the country to work with survivors and pursue their effort.
Efforts to document the survivors’ stories and voices have grown in recent years around Japan, including in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. In some places, young volunteers are working with hibakusha to succeed their personal story telling when they are gone.
The first U.S. atomic bombing killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. A second atomic attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing an end to its nearly half-century aggression in Asia.
Hidankyo was formed 11 years later in 1956. There was a growing anti-nuclear movement in Japan in response to U.S. hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific that led to a series of radiation exposures by Japanese boats, adding to demands for government support for health problems.
As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and nearly one-quarter of the total in the 1980s — were certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.
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World
American tourist arrested in Paris after allegedly throwing newborn baby out of hotel window: reports
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An American woman was arrested in Paris after she allegedly threw a newborn baby out of a hotel window, according to reports.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the incident, first reported by local outlet Paris Match, with the New York Post on Monday. The child was thrown out of the window earlier that morning.
The fall reportedly took place from a second-floor window. The newborn was given emergency medical care but did not survive.
The hotel is located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, a neighborhood popular with tourists seeking to visit the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Frédéric Chopin and other notable people are buried.
LAW STUDENT KILLED BY ELEPHANT DURING VACATION TO THAILAND: OFFICIALS
The 20th arrondissement of Paris, France, in a picture taken on November 18, 2024. (Getty Images)
The American woman, who is currently detained, was allegedly part of a group of young adults traveling in Europe. The Paris Match described her as being part of a “study trip.”
Officials are investigating the case as a possible instance of “pregnancy denial,” in which a woman is unaware of her pregnancy or unable to accept it.
EXPERT WARNS AMERICANS ABOUT ELEPHANT TOURISM AFTER YOUNG STUDENT IS KILLED IN THAILAND: ‘RECIPE FOR DISASTER’
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A street in Paris’s 20th arrondissement on May 15, 2024. (Getty Images)
Paris’ Child Protection Brigade was assigned to the case, which will be investigated as a homicide, according to NEXSTAR.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Paris prosecutor’s office for additional comment.
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Police cars seen in Paris on July 24, 2024. (Getty Images)
Authorities are actively investigating the incident. No additional details are known at this time.
World
MSF halts operations in camp in Sudan’s Darfur region as violence rages
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Doctors Without Borders says increased fighting in and around Zamzam camp has made it too dangerous to operate.
Doctors Without Borders has said it is suspending its work in a famine-stricken camp for displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur region, as an increase in violent attacks has made it too dangerous to operate.
In a statement on Monday, the medical charity – known by its French-language acronym MSF – said fighting in and around Zamzam camp near the town of el-Fasher had made it “impossible … to continue providing medical assistance”.
“Despite widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs, we have no choice but to take the decision to suspend all our activities in the camp, including the MSF field hospital,” the group said.
MSF was one of the few humanitarian groups still working in the camp, which houses about half a million people displaced by Sudan’s devastating 22-month civil war.
Health workers at the organisation’s field hospital in Zamzam had helped treat people wounded in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) this month, as well as provided care to thousands of malnourished children.
“Halting our project in the midst of a worsening disaster in Zamzam is a heartbreaking decision,” said Yahya Kalilah, MSF’s Sudan country director.
“The sheer proximity of the violence, great difficulties in sending supplies, the impossibility to send experienced staff for adequate support, and uncertainty regarding routes out of the camp for our colleagues and civilians leave us with little choice.”
We’ve taken the difficult decision to suspend our activities in Zamzam camp, North Darfur, Sudan. Violence has engulfed the camp, which hosts around 500,000 people.
We urge all armed actors in the area to protect civilians..
The details: https://t.co/7zb32yoe5d
— MSF International (@MSF) February 24, 2025
The war in Sudan broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese military in April 2023.
Both parties have been accused of war crimes as the United Nations says the violence has killed tens of thousands of people, forced 14 million to flee their homes and spurred a humanitarian crisis.
On February 11, the RSF stormed Zamzam, triggering two days of clashes with the army and allied armed groups and forcing about 10,000 families to flee, according to the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
MSF said its teams had treated 139 patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds in its field hospital so far this month. But 11 people – including five children – died because the facility lacked the necessary equipment.
The organisation also said its ambulances were targeted in recent months.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday of a “further escalation” after the RSF and its allies agreed to form a parallel government.
Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the UN chief was “deeply concerned” by Sunday’s announcement. “This further escalation in the conflict… deepens the fragmentation of the country,” Dujarric said.
The RSF-led government is not expected to receive widespread recognition, with the group accused of carrying out war crimes, including genocide.
But it is a sign that the splintering of Sudan could be cementing as the RSF focuses on the western region of Darfur while it loses ground elsewhere.
World
Japan and Philippines agree to deepen defense ties due to their mutual alarm over Chinese aggression
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Japan and the Philippines agreed Monday to further deepen their defense collaboration and talk about protecting shared military information in the face of mutual alarm over China’s increasing aggressive actions in the region.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, forged the agreements in a meeting in Manila where their concern over China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea was high in the agenda.
Japan and the Philippines are treaty allies of the United States, and the three have been among the most vocal critics of China’s assertive actions in the region, including in the contested waters.
At the opening of his meeting with Nakatani, Teodoro said the Philippines was looking forward to boosting defense relations with Japan “against unilateral attempts by China and other countries to change the international order and the narrative.”
Nakatani said after the meeting that he agreed with Teodoro “to strengthen operational cooperation,” including joint and multinational defense trainings, port calls and information-sharing.
“We also agreed to commence discussion between defense authorities on military information protection mechanism,” Nakatani said.
The Philippines signed an agreement with the United States, its longtime treaty ally, last year to better secure the exchange of highly confidential military intelligence and technology in key weapons to allow the sale of such weaponry by the U.S. to the Philippines.
Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Teodoro signed the legally binding General Security of Military Information Agreement in Manila at a time when the U.S. and the Philippines were boosting their defense and military engagements, including large-scale joint combat drills, largely in response to China’s increasingly aggressive actions in Asia.
Nakatani said that he and Teodoro “firmly concurred that the security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe and that it is necessary for the two countries as strategic partners to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in Indo-Pacific.”
Japan has had a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships, meanwhile, have been involved in a series of increasingly hostile confrontations in the South China Sea in the last two years.
Also high in the agenda of Nakatani and Teodoro, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, was the “expansion of bilateral cooperation, especially in the context of the Reciprocal Access Agreement.”
Last year, Japan and the Philippines signed the agreement allowing the deployment of Japanese and Philippine forces for joint military and combat drills in each other’s territory. The Philippine Senate has ratified the agreement, and its expected ratification by Japan’s legislature would allow the agreement to take effect.
The agreement with the Philippines, which includes live-fire drills, is the first to be forged by Japan in Asia. Japan signed similar accords with Australia in 2022 and with Britain in 2023.
Japan has taken steps to boost its security and defensive firepower, including a counterstrike capability that breaks from the country’s postwar principle of focusing only on self-defense. It’s doubling defense spending in a five-year period to 2027 to bolster its military power.
Many of Japan’s Asian neighbors, including the Philippines, came under Japanese aggression until its defeat in World War II, and Tokyo’s efforts to strengthen its military role and spending could be a sensitive issue.
Japan and the Philippines, however, have steadily deepened defense and security ties largely due to concerns over Chinese aggression in the region.
___
Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.
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